Each man with a new idea

is a crank until the idea succeeds.

-- Mark Twain

What does it mean to be different? How does it feel? Is it okay to act or look or be different from everyone else at times?

Sometimes, maybe even most of the time, it feels safer to blend into the crowd. We don't want to stick out like a sore thumb. But sometimes it's when we are different that we discover new things no one has ever thought of or done before.

We don't want to spend our whole lives doing only what others do. And there are times when we must take a stand if what others are doing is wrong.

Perhaps it's good practice to try to do some little thing differently once in a while, to stand out from the crowd, just to get used to it. We might even like it.

After all, if no one ever dares to be different, how would our world ever change for the better?

She must learn to speak starting with I

starting with We

starting as the infant does with her own true hunger

and pleasure and rage.

-- Marge Piercy

Once there was a writer who was writing a book for children. He decided to ask his son for ideas.

"What would you like to tell other children?" he asked.

He thought the boy would say something like, "Everybody love everybody." But instead the boy said, "Number one, ignore what your parents say about nutritious food.

Number two, don't go to school."

The father laughed and thanked the boy for his ideas, even though they weren't what he expected.

He loved his son for being able to feel and express his desires so strongly.

We all have a child within us, no matter how old we are.

When we honor that child, we also honor who we have become, and we free ourselves to express our truest feelings.

What does the child within me want to do today?

__________

10/19/2024

Some of the lines, bars & banners by vikimouse at The New Mousepad (dead link 2009)